Reciprocating chick guard for conveyor-feeder corner



1966 R. L. VAN HUIS ETAL 3,

RECIPROCATING CHICK GUARD FOR CONVEYOR-FEEDER CORNER Filed May 13, 1965 f G INVENTORS Q'Q WZXM ATTOPA/EI S United States Patent a corporation of Michigan Filed May 13, 1963, Ser. No. 279,973 Claims. (Cl. 11952) This invention relates to animal feeding devices, and more particularly to a guard for an auatomated chicken feed trough designed to prevent chicks from becoming caught in the mechanism of the feeding device.

In the operation of automatic chick feeders, it has been noticed that when chicks fed in close proxity to enclosed portions of a chain driven feeder, such as corners, they would occasionally become hung up in the chain and become entrained into the corner housing with fatal results. The present invention eliminates this problem by pr oviding a guard which is attached to the feeder in proximity to a corner and is mechanically reciprocated by the chain itself to scare the chicks away from the corner by its movement and to push out of the way those hearty ones who venture near the corner in spite of it.

It is the primary object of the invention to provide a chick guard which is reciprocated by the feeding chain itself.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a chick guard for mounting adjacent a corner or other enclosed portion of an automatic feeder which pushes chicks out of the feeding trough near said corner.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a chick guard for the above described purpose whose reciprocation is sufficiently jerky and noisy to scare the chicks away from the corner or other enclosed portion of the feeder which it is intended to guard.

These and other objects of the invention willbecome apparent from a perusal of the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective, partly cut away view of the mechanism as installed on an automatic feeder;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the mechanism; and

FIG. 3 is a vertical section along line III-1110f FIG. 2.

Basically, the mechanism of this invention is operated by the motion of the links of the chain to pivotally reciprocate up and down so as to lift chicks away from the chain if they come too close to the corner. The bias force of the mechanism is derived only from its own weight, and all connections are loose so as to avoid any danger of crushing the chick between the mechanism and the chain.

In FIG. 1 the automatic feeder is generally designated as 10. It may comprise, for example, atrough section 12, a corner 14, and another trough section 16. Feed is conveyed through the trough sections 12 and 16 by a chain 18 moving in the direction of the arrow 20. The chain 18 is composed of links which are generally flat but have protruding hook portions 22 by which the links of the chain are linked together. The guard mechanism 24 of this invention is composed of a bracket 26 which is mounted on the housing 0f the corner 14. Pins 28, 30 are supported in ears 32, 34 formed in the bracket 26 and serve as pivots for the trigger member 36 and the kicker member 38, respectively. The trigger member 36 has a sensing arm 40 which contacts the protruding hook portions 22 of the chain 18, and an actuating arm 42 which engages the arm 44 of the kicker member 38. The kicker arm portion 46 of kicker member 38 terminates in a rounded, upwardly bent end 48 which prevents the kicker member from jamming the chain,

The weight of the kicker arm portion 46 biases the kicker member 38 in a counterclockwise direction about pivot 30. This bias correspondingly biases the trigger member 3y in .a clockwise direction about pivot 28. When the chain 18 moves in the direction of the arrow 20, the hook portion 22 of each link pushes the trigger member in a counterclockwise direction, which in turn pushes the kicker member 38 in a clockwise direction about pin 30 to the dotted line position of FIG. 2. Eventually, the end of the sensor portion 40 of the trigger member 36 rides over the hook portion 22 of the link, whereupon the bias exerted by the weight of kicker portion 46 returns the mechanism to its previous condition. It will be seen that the chain thus reciprocates the kicker member 38 at a rapid rate as it goes along. The loose interconnection of the components of the mechanism and their rapid agitation about the chain causes sufiicient noise to frighten the chicks away from the mechanism so as to further reduce the danger of the chicks becoming caught in the corner.

It will be seen that the present invention provides a simple and effective chick guard for automatic feeders, and that the concepts of this invention can be carried out in many different ways, of which the embodiment shown is merely illustrative. It is therefore not desired to limit the invention by the embodiment shown and described, but only by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A guard mechanism for a conveyor feeder for animals having a conveying chain longitudinally movable through a feed trough and into a housing, comprising: a member mounted for reciprocal, generally vertical movement in said feed trough adjacent said housing for pushing said animals away from said chain adjacent said housing; and separate actuating means movable relative to said member and operated by said chain to reciprocate said member whenever said chain is moving.

2. A guard mechanism for a conveyor feeder for animals having a conveying chain longitudinally movable through a feed trough and into a housing, comprising: a kicker member pivotally mounted near the top of said feed trough; and a trigger member pivotally mounted on said feed trough; said trigger member having a sensor portion loosely resting on said chain, and an actuating arm integrally formed therewith; and said kicker member having an arm loosely engaging said actuating .arm for actuation thereby; said kicker member biasing said trigger member against said chain, and said kicker member being movable by said actuating arm from the vicinity of said chain to the vicinity of the top of said trough.

3. A guard mechanism for a conveyor feeder for animals having a conveying chain longitudinally movable through a feed trough and into a housing, comprising: a mounting plate overlying said trough; a pair of journal pins supported on said mounting plate transversely of said trough; a kicker member mounted for pivotal movement on one of said journal pins; said kicker member having an elongated kicker portion of a width substantially equal to the width of said trough and a length substantially greater than the depth of said trough, and a shorter arm portion on the opposite side of said journal pin from said kicker portion; a trigger member mounted for pivotal movement on the other of said journal pins; said trigger member having a sensor portion whose extremity rests loosely on said chain and is movable back and forth by by the links thereof, and an actuating arm on the other side of its journal pin loosely engaging said 'arm of said kicker member; said kicker member arm being biased against said actuating arm and said sensor portion being biased against said chain by the weight of said kicker portion.

4. The device of claim 3, in which the outer end of said Patented Nov. 15, 1966 kicker portion is curved upwardly to prevent it from be ing caught in said chain,

5. A guard mechanism for a conveyor feeder for animals having a conveying chain longitudinally movable through a feed trough and into a housing, comprising: a kicker member mounted on said feed trough for pivotal movement; and trigger means having a sensor portion engaging the links of said chain for reciprocal movement thereby as said chain moves, and an actuating connection to said kicker member for reciprocating said kicker member in unison with said sensor portion; said connection and the dimensions of said kicker member being so chosen that the extremity of said kicker member traverses substantially the entire height of said trough while said sensor portion moves only through substantially the differ- 15 ence in thickness of said chain between the thinnest part of each link and its thickest part.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,368,114 1/1945 Cartlidge 214-83 2,683,439 7/1954 M'arkey 11952 2,782,761 2/1957 Martin et al 11952 2,866,536 12/1958 Smallegan 1l952 10 3,077,182 2/1963 Jordan 119-52 SAMUEL KOREN, Primary Examiner.

ALDRICH F. MEDBERY, Examiner. 

1. A GUARD MECHANISM FOR A CONVEYOR FEEDER FOR ANIMALS HAVING A CONVEYING CHAIN LONGITUDINALLY MOVABLE THROUGH A FEED TROUGH AND INTO A HOUSING, COMPRISING: A MEMBER MOUNTED FOR RECIPROCAL, GENERALLY VERTICAL MOVEMENT IN SAID FEED TROUGH ADJACENT SAID HOUSING FOR PUSHING SAID ANIMALS AWAY FROM SAID CHAIN ADJACENT SAID HOUSING; AND SEPARATE ACTUATING MEANS MOVABLE RELATIVE TO SAID MEMBER AND OPERATED BY SAID CHAIN TO RECIPROCATE SAID MEMBER WHEN EVER SAID CHAIN IS MOVING. 